Advantages and disadvantages in teaching

“History of Kazakhstan” in the second language (Kazakh L2)

Authour: Zukhra Shegenova

AEO “Nazarbayev Intellectual schools”

Trilingual education policy at the Nazarbayev Intellectual schools

From Grade 7 the subject “History of Kazakhstan” is taught in Kazakh (L2),

regardless of the language of instruction

To what extent do learners acquire subject content studying the “History

of Kazakhstan” in the second language ?

Research question

Methods/Methodology

• The observations of lessons

10 lessons

• The learner and teachers’ questionnaires Survey 1 - 2437 learners

Survey 1 (January) - 53 teachers

Survey 2 (April) – 29 teachers

• The summative works of learners 16 works

• The interviews with learners and teachers

24 learners and 14 teachers

+ Many students have the motivation and efforts to acquire the subject content

+ Non-Kazakh learners understand the necessity of studying the state language

______________________________________________________________________________________

- Learners' language level is not always appropriate to the learning content

- Language scaffolding was not observed

- Teachers face the challenges in the methodology of teaching history in the second language

Results of the observations of lessons

+ 10 learners noticed that learning history in second language (Kazakh) allows them to learn official language

more effectively

+ 4 learners mentioned that the study of the History of Kazakhstan in a second language makes it possible to

comprehend the history of their country more deeply

__________________________________________________________________________________________

- Most learners are struggling with writing, reading and speaking in History lesson.

- Level of understanding the texts is very low

- Learners are not interested in History because they do not understand many issues

Results of interviews with learners

+ 9 teachers believe that the study of History of Kazakhstan in the second language encourages the

development of learners' language skills

+ Despite the problems in studying the History of Kazakhstan in the second language, teachers mentioned that

learners are motivated and make efforts to learn the subject

__________________________________________________________________________________________

- Difficulties with preparations for the lesson

- Not all of the students are motivated to study the History of Kazakhstan in the second language

- Not all of the students are able to pass summative assessment

Results of interviews with teachers

Results of analysis of the learners’ questionnaire results

(January, 2016)

76%

9%

5% 10%

During the learning process learners faced following problems:

language issue

lack of the resources

large number of the learning objectives

no problem64%

25%

11%

264 learners from 2437 defined History of Kazakhstan as the most uninteresting subject

language issue

uninteresting lessons

uninteresting topics in the SP

Results of analysis of the teachers' questionnaire (January, 2016)

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

5-completely agree4-agree

3-partially agree

2-disagree

1-strongly disagree

Trilingual policy supports the development of language learning in my subject

Results of analysis of the teachers' questionnaire results (April, 2016)

not sure 7%

fully confident 31%

not fully confident

62%

To what extent are you confident CLIL?

46%

54%

Did you face any problem in applying CLIL approach?

yes no

yes 62%

no 38%

Do the learners fully acquire the content of the History of Kazakhstan when you’re teaching them in Kazakh?

yes no

Results of the analysis of the teachers' questionnaire (April, 2016)

Results of the summative works of learners

• The main focus was learners’ reflection and communication, comprehension of the texts

• 6 learners out of 16 showed good content knowledge and writing and reading skills

+ Despite the fact that learners had problems with the language skills, they were trying to express their

thoughts and ideas in Kazakh

Results of the summative assessments of learners

The other 10 learners made the following mistakes:

• Purely developed structure in essay

• Students were not accurate in using historical facts

• Learners couldn’t define clearly the causes and consequences of the historical events

• Vocabulary was very limited

Research findings

+ Most learners and teachers perceive the study of the subject “History of Kazakhstan” in the second language

positively

- Only few learners have the appropriate level of language proficiency (CEFR, B1 level).

- Teaching History of Kazakhstan in second language (L2, Kazakh) directly influences their interests to the

subject.

- Learning History of Kazakhstan in Kazakh (L2) does not allow to acquire subject content fully enough

- The language scaffolding was limited

- Teachers do not use properly CLIL (content and language integrated learning) approach

Suggestions

• Continue teachers’ trainings on CLIL

• Exchange of the best practices between teachers of Nazarbayev Intellectual schools.

• Review of the assessment requirements

• Start teaching History of Kazakhstan from Terms 2-3 in Grade 7

• Decrease the number of Units in Grade 7. The Unites may be added in Grades 8-9

Further questions…

• How can teachers of the “History of Kazakhstan ” in the second language can ensure that the

learners understand the learning content of the subject?

• How can teachers help learners learn not only the content of their subjects, but also the

language which is necessary for them to demonstrate their understanding of the content?

• How can learners learn both the subject content and develop their language skills?

Thank you for your attention